LH bids farewell to B737

murphaph

Not sure if it's been mentioned already but LH retired their last remaining B733s a few days ago. More details here.

ohigg84

Sad day, LH ends 48 years of 737 ops, pretty impressive!

Buffman

End of an era indeed considering LH were the 737 launch customer, getting line number 2, a 737-130.

Captain_Crash

Only LH and ML (who later became MH and SQ) ever operated the 100. It was a rare bird, ever rarer that the 320's with double bogies.

One major design flaw that was rectified on the 200 was the clam-shells opened in an up/down configuration meaning thrust was directed downward which resulted in the main gear lifting, which reduced braking significantly. The doors were angled on the 200 series (and the DC9) to prevent this. That's my useless 737-100 fact, well done to LH for having them operate for so long.

In fact there is no other operator with that many years service, who hasn't ever operated the NG series.

Buffman

Captain_Crash wrote: »

Only LH and ML (who later became MH and SQ) ever operated the 100. It was a rare bird, ever rarer that the 320's with double bogies.

Yep, only 30 100s built compared to over 1100 200s.

Captain_Crash wrote: »

One major design flaw that was rectified on the 200 was the clam-shells opened in an up/down configuration meaning thrust was directed downward which resulted in the main gear lifting, which reduced braking significantly.That's my useless 737-100 fact

Ye, that was an unfortunate side effect of using the 727 reverser arrangement.

Captain_Crash wrote: »

That's my useless 737-100 fact

Ah, no such thing!:D I'll throw in another one!:D

The first 737 (also pictured with the LH one above) went on to have an interesting life. After Boeing finished using it for certification/testing, it was bought by NASA. They used it for the development and flight testing of a lot of modern systems that are used by most aircraft today.



It was heavily modified, including a second fully functional flight deck which was the prototype of modern 'glass' flight decks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiJ5XXDoRPo

NASA 515 is the only surviving 737-100 and is now part of the museum of flight in Seattle.

EchoIndia

Captain_Crash wrote: »

Only LH and ML (who later became MH and SQ) ever operated the 100. It was a rare bird, ever rarer that the 320's with double bogies.

I think you mean they were the only airlines to order the -100. PeoplExpress bought a lot of the LH machines and these went on to serve with Continental after PE was taken over. Here's one that I saw at LGA in 1989.


America West acquired one or two -100s in the 1980s and a few other companies used -100s in small numbers at one time or another as well.
http://www.airliners.net/search?aircraftBasicType=2387&sortBy=dateAccepted&sortOrder=desc&perPage=36&display=detail

Captain_Crash

EchoIndia wrote: »

I think you mean they were the only airlines to order the -100. PeoplExpress bought a lot of the LH machines and these went on to serve with Continental after PE was taken over. Here's one that I saw at LGA in 1989

Not a true 100, look at the clam-shells... they'd been modified by that stage lol:p

Yes, your right they operated for others also. My oversight.

There is a great documentary on Youtube about the NASA 737, its several years old but worth the watch.

Shannon757

https://twitter.com/airlivenet/status/795243440594362368

On the way to the desert now